History of Tiege: A Mennonite Village in the Molotschna Colony

Basic facts of Tiege:
– founded in 1804 by Mennonites exiting the Vistula Delta
– 1835 population: 192 with 27 establishments
– 1857 population: 251, living in 41 houses
– 1857 school size: 43 students
– 1908 population: 419
– 1908: various businesses are listed: a windmill, bookstore, brick factory, seller of manufactured goods, seller of farm implements
– 1930s: 47 men sent into exile prior to WWII
– 1942 German army statistics: 136 Mennonites
– 1943: remaining Mennonite population joined “Great Trek” westward to Poland and Germany
– 2025: Google Maps shows former Tiege, Ohrloff, Blumenort, and Rosenort combined into one town called Orlove.
source: Molotschna Historical Atlas, pp. 189-191.

Color photos below are from my 2007 trip to Ukraine.

Former Maria School for the Deaf and Dumb. According to the Molotschna Historical Atlas (p. 190) the school first started in a home in Blumenort in 1885 and later moved this location in Tiege. Another source gives the starting year as 1881. An impressive two-level structure with many windows.
According to the Molotschna Historical Atlas, well-trained teachers offered at this school for the deaf and dumb a nine-year elementary school.

Brickwork pattern only found in the Mennonite-built structures.